BILLIE'S UNDERWATER ADVENTURE

Billie B. Brown’s preschool adventures continue (Billie’s Great Desert Adventure, 2016), this time in a wonderful water habitat.

Billie’s class is going on an underwater adventure. Miss Amy asks who would like to be the mermaid. Black-haired, fair-skinned Billie would love to, but she doesn’t answer quickly enough. Zara, a little girl with light-brown skin and dreadlocks, gets to be the mermaid instead. With arms crossed tight and a decided frown upon her face, Billie pouts. But then Miss Amy transforms Billie into a glittery sea creature. The allure of the sparkly fabric is too much to resist. Billie smiles. The teacher swooshes out a blue blanket, and imaginative waves roll out. “Be back in time for fruit snack!” Miss Amy calls. Billie, Zara, and Jack, a sandy-haired white boy, swim deep, deep down into a world of fish. They head to an undersea castle, where they feast on seashell cakes, starfish pies, and seaweed spaghetti. But suddenly, they are attacked by a “great gloopy sea monster!” In a solution only a creative preschool mind could muster, the three friends escape back to the safety of their classroom. Billie is a spunky heroine who runs the gamut of a youngster’s emotions.

Here’s hoping this adventure will be re-created in many classrooms using a simple blue cloth and a wallop of imagination.